Hyuuga
by Kaj-Nrig
Summary: After the Chuunin exams, the Hyuuga elders determine that Hinata must marry Neji in order to preserve the strength of the clan. The two of them deal with this news, and with each other.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I thought this quick story up while exploring ideas for a separate Naruto fic I'm working on. I can see this story continuing beyond where it ends here, but that will have to tell itself some other day. For now, this will suffice. Plays fast and loose with the canon; if you enjoy it, please let me know. Thanks.

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Hyuuga  
by Kaj-Nrig

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Chapter 1

It was only after Neji nearly killed Hinata that he learned she was to be his wife one day. The Hyuuga elders gathered the same night as the Chuunin exam battle to discuss the future of the clan amidst the all too predictable outcome of the fight, and in order to quell the growing sense of resentment from the branch family, Hiashi agreed to a marriage between the former heiress and the branch family's prodigy. Such an arrangement would have no bearing on the order of succession - Hanabi would remain the heir to the clan leadership, with Hinata to follow in the face of unforeseen circumstances - and would meanwhile afford the branch family more sway in intra-clan politics.

The Hyuuga clan overall would keep its greatest strengths within and loyal to the family. There would be no repeat of the disastrous Uchiha affair. When Neji learned of this, sitting seiza two tea trays away from his uncle and future father-in-law, his resentment for Hinata and her father only increased tenfold. "You're a coward," he told the Hyuuga leader bluntly inside the main house's dining room.

"You can think whatever you want of me," Hiashi countered as he calmly sipped at his tea. "But perhaps you should apply some of your genius to the situation, my nephew. This arrangement brings you one step closer to ridding yourself of the caste that has hung over your head and stifled your destiny your entire life, all ten years of it."

"Thirteen," Neji corrected him petulantly, but Hiashi could see the gears already churning in his head. "So you want me to trade one predetermined life for another?"

"Is marrying my daughter such a curse?" Hiashi held up one hand to forestall Neji's hasty and no doubt fiery response. "The decision has been made. The marriage will take place on the anniversary of our clan's founding the year after Hinata's sixteenth birthday. You have until then to accept this path we've set for you, or to change it by force of will. For now, the matter is concluded."

Neji stared blankly at the cup of tea Hiashi offered him then. "I'll never marry that weakling," he hissed at the amber liquid. Hiashi sighed and placed the cup down in front of Neji, then took a moment to compose himself.

"You will come to see, sooner or later, that even the gentlest river is capable of eroding mountains," Hiashi said as he poured himself a cup of tea. "You tried to murder my eldest daughter in front of me, future son-in-law. Her strength is the only thing keeping her alive and me from striking you dead here and now, the branch family and the marriage be damned. Drink." Hiashi raised his cup to his lips, and Neji, despite his seething rage, followed the man's lead. With a nod that signified the end of the conversation, Hiashi got up and made for the door.

* * *

When Hinata woke, she saw, to her surprise, Neji sitting on the floor in the far corner of the hospital room, his head bobbing up and down as he fought sleep. Her quiet squeak of alarm was enough to snap him out of his reverie, and they met eyes. Hinata's hands gripped the sheets tightly of their own accord, and she tried her best to fight past the panic quickly rising up through her gut. The last time she had seen him was at the Chuunin exams when he was mercilessly beating her insides into a pulp.

"What do you want?" she wanted to ask, but her mouth refused to open. She remembered the look of unbridled rage on his face, and the longer this silence dragged on the more that look seemed to overtake his features again. What was making him so angry?

A phantom pain blossomed in her chest where he had struck her, and she tasted something bitter in her mouth. The bedside ECG machine began to beep distressingly quickly; Hinata could only hope that a nurse would take notice soon and come save her.

The whine of the ECG seemed to trigger something other than the mounting rage in her cousin, and he looked from it to her with something almost like panic and concern before realization struck and he quickly undid the nearby window latch and hopped out just as a nurse barreled through the door. Hinata tried to take deep breaths, tried to get her emotions under control, but the pain in her chest was too much, too constricting. She coughed and something viscous slipped out her mouth to stain her sheets red.

"Am I going to die?" she asked the nurse before everything suddenly went black. When Hinata woke again, several days had passed and there was no Neji around to trigger a panic attack like before. She took that with great relief, but a part of her mourned quietly. Was she fated to always fear her niisan now?

Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai-sensei visited her shortly thereafter; they had somehow beaten even her family to the hospital despite being contacted second. By the time they finally left, her room had filled with members of the Hyuuga clan and several of the genin teams from the Chuunin exams. Even Gai-sensei's team showed up, bandaged and beaten from their losses and missing Neji. After a touching if awkward apology for Neji's actions where Lee nearly rebroke his leg in the process of joining Tenten in a formal kowtow, Hinata wished both of them speedy recoveries and the best of luck at next year's exams. Finally, she inquired about her cousin.

"What he did was wrong," Tenten said with open animosity. "I don't care why he did what he did. His reasons stink and I don't care about the clan politics that motivated him–it's bullshit, no offense–" this she said to Hiashi, who didn't deign to respond "–but he shouldn't have done that and I told him as much before I stopped talking to him."

"You did what? Oh, no..." Hinata gasped.

Lee laughed in solidarity with Tenten, jovially if somewhat nervously. "I know you're his family, Hinata-san, but we also grew up with him, and he is our friend and teammate. We know a thing or two about getting through that thick skull of his."

To that, Hinata could only offer a bemused "Oh..." Despite herself, the thought of Neji being ostracized by his closest friends only caused her greater sadness.

"I can already see it kicking in," Tenten chided with a pinch of Hinata's cheek. "You care too much about people, Hinata. Don't worry your cute little head. Trust me, we know what we're doing."

"Okay," she relented before a thought struck her. "Will you be visiting again?"

After a moment, the three of them turned to Gai-sensei, who pondered the question loudly. Finally, with an emphatic nod and a wide grin, he said, "Until such a day that the sun of youth shines within you again, we shall visit no less than once every three days!"

"Just once a week would be lovely, Gai-sensei," Hinata said nervously.

"Then once a week it shall be!" he roared.

Hinata nodded pleased. "When you do, will you please bring Neji? I'd like to see him again."

"Even though he's the reason you're here?" Tenten asked skeptically. Hinata nodded, and they traded farewells before Team Gai left, leaving only Hinata's father Hiashi and younger sister Hanabi.

"'Tousan wanted to wait 'til everyone's gone before telling you," Hanabi blurted. Hinata looked expectantly to her father, who took his time pacing about the room.

"You must be tired from all the excitement today," he said.

"Yes, but it was very nice to see so many people. I do hope Lee-san makes a full recovery."

"Yes."

"Otousan?" Hinata prodded gently. "Is something the matter?"

"What do you think of Neji?" he finally said at length.

"Neji-niisan?" Hinata repeated. "I... I'm not quite sure what you mean, otousan. I'm sorry."

Hiashi said nothing, which only confused Hinata more. She looked to Hanabi, who was clearly growing impatient; her left foot tapped silently on the floor.

"Hanabi?"

Hanabi shook her head almost violently. "'Tousan made me promise not to say anything."

"Otousan?" Hinata noticed idly that the ECG machine monitoring her vitals had sped up slightly.

Finally, Hiashi sighed. "I spoke with the branch family after your loss to Neji. We came to the conclusion that we must keep such strength of his caliber within the main family's bloodline. To that end, you will be marrying him on the anniversary of the clan's founding after your sixteenth birthday."

Something went cold and numb inside Hinata as her father spoke. Her eyes refused to focus, and her mind went blank except for an occasional flicker of orange and blond. She wanted to say... something. She wasn't wholly sure on the what or why of her response, but she knew it had to do with the lump of ice in her stomach right now. She managed to mutter, "Oh," and followed it up with, "Why sixteen?"

"What?" Hiashi said. Clearly, her father had expected a different response; she could see the rigidity setting into his jaw, the tightening of his shoulders.

"Why sixteen?" she asked again.

"I've worked too hard to accommodate your timidity all these years, Hinata. I will not have you entertaining ideas of undermining me on this."

"I wasn't trying to–" she began before the strength of her father's words bowled her over and she hung her head, fighting against tears. What had she said, done, to give him the impression she wanted to undermine him? "I'm sorry, otousan," she tried to explain. "I only meant–"

"The decision has been made, Hinata."

"Yes, otousan." Hinata could feel Hanabi looking at her, witnessing her humiliation, and it took all of her self-control to not simply pull the sheets up and pretend the whole world didn't exist.

The matter settled enough for him, Hiashi made his way to the door, and Hanabi followed. "Focus on your recovery for now. We'll talk more when you get better," he said, the tone of his voice so markedly different from just moments ago - soft instead of sharp, nurturing instead of demanding - that Hinata could scarcely believe they issued from the same man. Such was life with her father.

"Yes, otousan," she answered deflatedly, and did not watch them as they left. The nurses checked on her soon thereafter; once they too left and Hinata was reasonably certain of her privacy, she wept openly into her blankets, repeating Naruto's name again and again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Neji knew it would only be a matter of time before his teammates spoke to him again. As much as they scoffed at how he had handled himself during his match against Hinata, they also understood clearly the gulf between their skill and his, and their need of him in order to better themselves. Thus he showed graciousness when Tenten showed up at the Hyuuga family compound after only a week and a half of silence.

To his surprise, though, Tenten was less than apologetic in demeanor, preemptively holding one finger up to silence him before he could even open his mouth. "I'm only here because Hinata asked us to bring you along next time we visit her. Are you coming today?" she asked, her eyes staring veritable daggers into his own.

Neji ignored her look as best he could as he considered the proposition. The last time he had visited, his mere presence had reopened Hinata's wounds even though he had only wanted to... Now that he thought on it, what _had_ he hoped to accomplish? Certainly he had not been concerned about her health; he had put her there, after all. He had wanted to tell her about the marriage and make clear his opposition to it, but her stupid silent treatment followed by the even more pitiable panic attack had distracted him almost immediately. And she wanted to see him still, after all that? As weak as she was, and unconcerned for her own safety to boot? Just thinking about it was enough to make his blood boil.

"Well?" Tenten asked sharply, cutting into his train of thought. He had expressly told her many times how he hated to lose focus.

"No," he snapped angrily.

"Fine," she snapped back and pivoted immediately, leaving so quickly only her unique scent of charcoal, metal, and oils lingered. Neji stood in the compound entrance for a moment longer, trying to piece together why Tenten could still be mad at him, before scowling as the reason eluded him and he returned inside to continue his taijutsu training. Not that it would do him any good; he already knew all the basic forms. He needed the forbidden techniques to which only the main house was privy; it galled him to think that Hinata would one day learn the entire repertoire of the Gentle Fist. A small voice whispered that all he had to do was ask Hiashi, especially now that he was betrothed to Hiashi's elder daughter, but he refused to entertain the thought. To do so would legitimize the fate thrust upon him, and he would sooner remove his own Byakugan.

So no techniques to learn, no one to teach him, and no teammates to train with; he was alone in his training to fight Naruto. No matter. He had learned some of the forbidden techniques on his own. He could learn the rest on his own, too, and then he would use Naruto to show the main house that he was not one to be trifled with.

The next week, Lee came to invite him. Unlike Tenten, Lee seemed torn between keeping up his charade of ostracization and rekindling their friendship, but his normally beaming expression hardened when Neji reaffirmed his commitment to not visit his bedridden cousin. Lee left and Neji spent that night refusing to think about how Hinata was possibly faring.

The week after that, Gai-sensei appeared and did not say anything, but he had a strange, warm twinkle in his eye. He clapped Neji on the shoulder with one large hand and bellowed out a loud "Hm!" that Neji took as being somewhere between encouragement and anger. And just like that, his sensei left, and Neji returned to his training extra bitter. He would have expected Gai-sensei out of everyone to be the one to see how important his training was. Oh well.

The fourth week was the entire team's turn, it seemed, and they found him at the training grounds despite his strict command to his family that no one inform them he would be there. He had only a day until his fight with Naruto, yet here they were, the weapons user of average ability, the talentless buffoon, and the joke of a sensei. And despite himself, he allowed Tenten to goad him into a sparring session.

No, Neji would later reflect, if he was honest with himself, he would admit that what they had that day was a fight, and one she was only too prepared for: By the time Gai-sensei stepped in to break it up, he had paralyzed her limbs, but not before she managed to sneak several heavy iron bars past his Gentle Fist defense to bruise his bones. The wounds stayed with him through the night, and into the next day and his battle with Naruto. One particularly sharp twinge of pain made him pause just long enough for the jinchuuriki to gain the advantage and seize an improbable victory. As Gai-sensei carried him home that day, Neji glared at the passing town and vowed to become strong enough to surpass even the tailed beasts.

The week after that, to his surprise, it was Kurenai-sensei who showed up at his doorstep. "Gai and Lee-kun were on their way, but I convinced them to let me instead," she explained, adding, "Tenten doesn't want to talk to you anymore."

"My feelings have not changed," Neji said obstinately. In fact his resolve had only strengthened. "I don't care how Hinata-sama is doing, and I don't care to speak to her."

"I know," Kurenai-sensei said, sounding unconvinced. "All the same, Hinata-chan wanted to let you know how she felt, especially now that you're betrothed to each other."

Neji's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "She told you?"

Kurenai-sensei nodded. "You would know if you had come to see her at all in the past month." There was no tone of malice or judgement in her voice, but Neji still felt the words themselves pierce like knives.

"I was busy training for the next round of the exams. Besides, I did visit her once, and she was… so scared she reopened her wounds." Saying those words out loud unlocked something deep inside him then. He was back at the hospital all those days ago, locking eyes with Hinata as a steady beep quickly turned more urgent, more dangerous. At the time, he had grown angrier and angrier with her inability to speak the longer the silence dragged on, but in hindsight all he could remember was seeing fear visibly washing over her. He remembered panicking, and he remembered the deep sense of shame he felt, before and after she woke.

"Ah, so that did happen," Kurenai-sensei noted, surprising Neji. "She told me something similar, but she thought it might have been a dream. She doesn't remember it happening, and if you ask me, I don't think she wants to remember. I don't think she wants her lasting memory of you to be one of fear."

"Why does she care?" Neji spat out, to which Kurenai-sensei merely shrugged her shoulders.

"That's just the kind of girl she is."

"That's what makes her weak."

Kurenai-sensei suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. Neji watched bemusedly as she worked to rein herself in and compose herself. "You're stuck on this weakness thing, aren't you? Yes, she's weak," she said with chuckles slipping through her lips, "but not a lot of your peers aren't compared to you, are they? Not that that's stopped them from beating you. I heard Tenten wailed on you something fierce, and even Naruto defeated you. And not to put too fine a point on it, but my little Hinata-chan has half the town avoiding you like the plague. She isn't even trying. Imagine what she could do to you if she did."

"I don't need them. I don't need their help or their pity, and I certainly don't need hers."

At that, Kurenai-sensei sighed a deep, put-upon sigh. "Look, kid, I know you're stuck between a rock and a hard place; I won't pretend to know what it's like to be born a Hyuuga. But the sooner you get your head out your ass and see that that little girl is on your side, the easier your life will be." Kurenai-sensei sighed once more and continued, more subdued this time, "Anyway, I just came to tell you that she's recovering well and has been up and moving about for the past two weeks or so, though she still gets tired easily. She misses you and she'd like to see you soon. I'll be going now, Neji-kun. Excuse me."

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When Neji finally visited, even though both he and Nurse Hirano announced his presence beforehand, Hinata could not help her heart seizing painfully at the sight of him entering her empty room. She was standing by the window when he entered - the same one he had escaped from weeks ago - and nearly collapsed upon sight of him. He noticed the sudden uptick in her vitals and almost turned away then and there, but stayed when she beckoned him enter. "I just need a moment," she said while working on breathing exercises to calm her nerves and stop the shaking in her knees.

Nurse Hirano nearly knocked the door over on her way into the room - clearly she was paying extra close attention to her patient - but upon seeing everything was fine, coughed a discreet cough and went to check on Hinata's machine, taking extra long to go over it thoroughly.

"It's good to see you again," Hinata said for lacking anything better, as amicably as she could.

"Kurenai-sensei told me you're doing better. I see you're walking."

"Yes. I even snuck out to do a little training. Sorry, Nurse Hirano."

The nurse shook her head and, having decided all was well, finally left the machine alone and made for the door. "You'll call if you need anything," she commanded, to which Hinata nodded.

"I'm sorry about your loss to Naruto-kun. I heard from Tenten."

"Are you really?" Neji asked, a barely-disguised edge to his voice.

A small smile crept to Hinata's lips unbidden. "Maybe I shouldn't be. Part of me isn't. But part of me is, despite everything. I'm glad you're okay, at least."

Neji made a sound of disapproval, but did not pursue the subject further. "I have to go," he said abruptly. "I just came to see how you were doing."

The smile vanished from Hinata's face, and she was faced again with the harsh distance that had only widened between the two of them ever since the Chuunin exams. "Okay," she mumbled, and he left.

Well, that had not been very substantial, but they had talked, which was a victory of sorts, Hinata supposed. Some progress was better than no progress.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Orochimaru and Suna invaded Konoha soon thereafter, and the available genin of Teams Kurenai and Gai immediately went to safeguard the patients and staff of the hospital, including and especially their teammates Lee and Hinata. Neji fought his way to Hinata's room only to find her standing over the corpse of a dead shinobi and clutching her chest in pain. "Neji?" she gasped at the sight of him, her body reflexively shifting into an attack stance for a brief moment.

"Are you alright, Hinata-sama!?" Neji asked without thinking, quickly striking a second fatal blow to her attacker for good measure and scooping her into his arms in one smooth motion. Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the hallway. "Tenten! Kiba! How is it out there?"

"Clear!" Tenten said back. "I saw a Suna nin falling out the window from the floors above us. We might have backup." She poked her head in and offered Hinata a brief smile. "You alright?"

"I will be," Hinata responded with an accompanying tightening of her grip on Neji's collar.

"I'm going up with Kiba to get Lee, then."

Neji nodded and carried Hinata down to the first floor where all the other survivors were congregated along with a sizable Hyuuga force led by none other than Hiashi himself. He took only a cursory glance at the two of them to ascertain their well-being before continuing his organization of the retreat to Konoha Rock. Tenten and Kiba returned with Lee and other survivors in tow. With them were Gai-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, who had fought the enemies from the rooftop down. Neji and Hinata parted ways, the former heading out with Tenten and their jounin sensei to guide more civilians to safety and the latter helping the medics along the retreat.

The invasion ended in disaster for both Konoha and Suna: both Kages had perished and the two villages had lost a sizable portion of their militaries because of Orochimaru's machinations. Neji and Hinata reunited once again amidst the fallout, at the funeral of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Neji thought that he might rekindle his hatred now that other, more immediately urgent matters were behind them, but he found he could no longer look at Hinata and see such a weak, frail thing. Or, rather, he could no longer see her weakness and frailty as personal failings, at least not hers. She hadn't stopped her own heart.

Hinata found, to her relief and delight, that the sight of him no longer panicked her like it had the month before. She had always known he suffered much as she did and more under the pressures of being a Hyuuga, but when their eyes found each other out amongst the crowd of black-attired funeral goers, she no longer saw that suffering focused into blinding rage at her and her family.

They managed to break away from the party celebrating the Third Hokage's life and walked each other to the stadium, where they had fought so bitterly and where the destruction of Konoha had begun. Neji was not partial to simplistic metaphors, but as a piece of rubble crumbled in his hand, he thought perhaps this moment had something to teach him. The collateral damage of hatred, or something similar. He looked to Hinata, saw the way she still favored her left side even now, the side where her heart and most severely injured lung resided, and his image of her blurred wetly.

He raised one hand just above her chest, and Hinata guided it to her heart. It skipped every hundredth beat or so and would likely do so for the rest of her life. She watched his Byakugan, swirling with unshed tears, with intense fascination as his hands moved to a spot just below her left shoulder, then up and down both arms, and ended on her hips, his right thumb resting over a point on her navel. "I did this to you," he said quietly. She nodded. "I was wrong to do this."

"You were hurting so much."

"But I shouldn't have done... this."

Hinata gulped, fighting her natural inclination to try and assuage his guilt, and nodded.

Neji then surprised her by dropping to his knees and bowing until his head touched the stadium floor. "I'm sorry, Hinata-sama," he said, his voice quivering ever so slightly as he spoke. Hinata had always thought she might cry at moments like this, but she found herself strangely composed instead as she knelt down and hugged his head to her body.

"I don't want to marry you, Neji-niisan, and I don't think you want to marry me, either. Do you?" she whispered to him.

He shook his head as best he could, which tickled her and made her laugh. "I don't want to think about being your husband or you being my wife."

They parted and held onto each other at arm's length. "For now, can we just be friends?" Hinata asked. "We have four years to undo our elders' mistake, but neither of us will be able to do so without the other." Neji nodded, and they made their way back home without anyone being so much the wiser.

Friends again, at last.


End file.
